Measurement of helium-3 and deuterium stopping power ratio for negative muons

Abstract

The measurement method and results measuring of the stopping power ratio of helium-3 and deuterium atoms for muons slowed down in the D/$^3$He mixture are presented. Measurements were performed at four values of pure $^3$He gas target densities, $\phi_{He} = 0.0337, 0.0355, 0.0359, 0.0363$ (normalized to the liquid hydrogen density) and at a density 0.0585 of the D/$^3$He mixture. The experiment was carried out at PSI muon beam $\mu$E4 with the momentum P$\mu =34.0$ MeV/c. The measured value of the mean stopping ratio $S_{^3He/D}$ is $1.66\pm 0.04$. This value can also be interpreted as the value of mean reduced ratio of probabilities for muon capture by helium-3 and deuterium atoms.